So......bad shit happened this weekend. Whole thing is sad. Wish President Twitter had chosen his words better too. Going to be a long 4 years if something doesn't change. Every week feels like a damn TV drama, but real.

PARIS — Four American college students were attacked with acid by a woman on Sunday at a train station in southern France, injuring at least two of them, according to the local police.

The assailant, a 41-year-old woman, was quickly arrested in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille. The police prefecture said they were not treating the attack on the American women as a terrorist assault.

The suspect has “a psychiatric history,” a spokeswoman for the police prefecture in Marseille said. “For now, nothing suggests that this was a terrorist attack.”

The four American women, all in their early 20s, were in front of the Saint-Charles train station when a woman threw hydrochloric acid on them shortly before 11 a.m., the police said.

Two of the women were burned, and the other two appeared to have escaped injury, but they were in a state of shock, according to police. All four were treated at a hospital on Sunday.

Boston College said in a statement on Sunday that the four women were students at the college and were enrolled in study-abroad programs. They were identified as Courtney Siverling, Charlotte Kaufman, Michelle Krug and Kelsey Kosten, all juniors.

Nick Gozik, who directs Boston College’s Office of International Programs, said in an email that the women had “recently arrived to start the fall semester.”

In the college’s statement, he added, “It appears that the students are fine, considering the circumstances, though they may require additional treatment for burns.”

The prosecutor’s office could not be reached for comment, but told France 3 that one of the women had been hit in the eye with acid and had trouble seeing.

France has been on high alert for terrorism since 2015, after a series of attacks killed more than 230 people. There have also been a number of attacks by psychologically unstable residents who have sometimes imitated terrorist acts, officials say.

La Provence, the main local newspaper, quoted police sources as saying that after the attack, the suspect had displayed pictures of herself with burns on her body. The prosecutor’s office said the suspect also had a criminal record for violent theft, according to France 3.

In 2013, two American women, Kirstie Trup and Katie Gee, both 18, who were teaching on the island of Zanzibar, were attacked with acid by two men on a moped who stopped, smiled and doused them, severely burning their faces, chests and hands, before speeding away.

In London this year, two teenage boys went on a violent, 72-hour spree in the northeast, spraying acid on five people, the authorities said. The teenagers were arrested on suspicion of robbery and of causing grievous bodily harm.

And all those people getting attacked in Catalunya. Militarised police mobilised for that rubbish.

You know, if you're the Spanish government and there's no way you're going to accept Catalunya's independence, just ignore the vote. Claim it's illegal, don't recognise the results and, at most, negotiate with politicians so that these leaders get some sort of position somewhere to shut them up and move on. But bringing in police from other parts of the country, making them remove the voting boxes and all that shit... it's so petty and pathetic. Hitting people because they went out to vote.

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

When you have a guy committing attempted murder with a clear political agenda, even it it's *just* a small handful of people affected, I have no problem calling it terrorism.

IMO, the Vegas shooting indeed fits the criteria for "...fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization" even without the as-yet revelation of any motive on the part of the shooter. The Vegas shooter obviously had been planning the act considering he had a huge cache of weapons (which already appears to be military grade, illegal no matter what kind of gun laws could possibly be enacted in the near future) he had accumulated and brought to the hotel, booked a room overlooking the concert grounds and waited until the evening of the final band when the grounds would have the largest crowd under cover of late night darkness.

From a accepted pathological or sociological standpoint, the guy was deranged to pull off this mass shooting, despite coldly and deliberately carrying it out. What will probably ultimately decide if the label "terrorism" fits is if a reason or excuse is found which targets a specific group or political idealogy.

Sadly, the politicizing and hand-wringing in the aftermath of this event will do nothing to address the root cause of why these things continue to happen with escalating frequency.

On the other hand, these kind of tragedies bring out the worst and certainly jaw-dropping stupid in some public figures:

CBS Legal Exec: No Sympathy For Vegas ‘Because Country Music Fans Often Are Republican’

October 2nd, 2017

"A top legal executive at CBS, Hayley Geftman-Gold, said she “is not even sympathetic” for the victims of the shooting at a country music festival at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas Sunday night.

“If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing,” wrote Geftman-Gold on Facebook, perhaps referring to Sandy Hook. “I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun toters.”

CBS has a history of hostility towards Republicans. Shortly after the attack on the GOP congressional baseball team gravely injuring Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise in June, former CBS anchor Scott Pelley questioned whether the shooting was “foreseeable, predictable and to some degree, self-inflicted.”

The original thread was deleted, but not by Geftman-Gold.

CBS did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation for comment."

What would possess someone to make these kind of comments jeopardizing their company's public image and their own job?

After Sandy Hook, the gun law never changed. And never will. I don't really understand why an 18th century law is still in place, but I don't know enough about it all and maybe I would have a different opinion if I was an American.

As far as Spain is concerned, what we saw yesterday was Nazi Germany all over again. Fucking disgraceful.

Bandit72 wrote:After Sandy Hook, the gun law never changed. And never will. I don't really understand why an 18th century law is still in place, but I don't know enough about it all and maybe I would have a different opinion if I was an American.

As far as Spain is concerned, what we saw yesterday was Nazi Germany all over again. Fucking disgraceful.

You cannot take firearms from Americans. Their obsession with guns is beyond me. Such a conservative nation. It really sickens me at times.

Bandit72 wrote:After Sandy Hook, the gun law never changed. And never will. I don't really understand why an 18th century law is still in place, but I don't know enough about it all and maybe I would have a different opinion if I was an American.

As far as Spain is concerned, what we saw yesterday was Nazi Germany all over again. Fucking disgraceful.

You cannot take firearms from Americans. Their obsession with guns is beyond me. Such a conservative nation. It really sickens me at times.

I own firearms 95% of which I use for hunting and I have one handgun, that said I agree the obsession is mind boggling at times. When the second amendment was written the framers never would have imagined bump stocks etc.

I'm from Houston and have a 12 gauge pistol grip for protection. Inherited a hunting rifle from my grandfather but don't hunt. Guns are serious business here. My wealthy uncle has a small arsenal. Probably 30+ guns from .50 caliber Desert Eagle, 22s, handguns, to hunting rifles. My cousin has a tech9 and many other nicer guns (10+). My real redneck uncle actually restores guns and loads his own ammo. Everyone has guns here. I don't have road rage because it seems like everyone is packing. I don't like it. I do feel safe at home though.

Fried Hamster wrote:I'm from Houston and have a 12 gauge pistol grip for protection. Inherited a hunting rifle from my grandfather but don't hunt. Guns are serious business here. My wealthy uncle has a small arsenal. Probably 30+ guns from .50 caliber Desert Eagle, 22s, handguns, to hunting rifles. My cousin has a tech9 and many other nicer guns (10+). My real redneck uncle actually restores guns and loads his own ammo. Everyone has guns here. I don't have road rage because it seems like everyone is packing. I don't like it. I do feel safe at home though.

It's come out today that the shooter had booked a room at the Blackstone Hotel specifically requesting a room with a view of the park hosting that weekend's Lollapalooza festival last August. Although he booked two separate rooms room over a 6 day span encompassing the entire duration of the festival, he never showed up to claim the rooms. He also stayed at three different rooms at the Ogden hotel in Las Vegas over a 9 day span a week prior during a different outdoor music festival held at the the same concert grounds as the Country festival. He also researched hotels around Boston's Fenway Park but apparently discovered all have obstructed views of the stadium.

Guy was looking for the softest target with large numbers of people and out door music festivals seemed to be his first choice.

Fried Hamster wrote:I'm from Houston and have a 12 gauge pistol grip for protection. Inherited a hunting rifle from my grandfather but don't hunt. Guns are serious business here. My wealthy uncle has a small arsenal. Probably 30+ guns from .50 caliber Desert Eagle, 22s, handguns, to hunting rifles. My cousin has a tech9 and many other nicer guns (10+). My real redneck uncle actually restores guns and loads his own ammo. Everyone has guns here. I don't have road rage because it seems like everyone is packing. I don't like it. I do feel safe at home though.

This is absolute madness.

Isn't it. I can't imagine HAVING to have a gun in my house to feel safe at home, jeez.

Bandit72 wrote:Isn't it. I can't imagine HAVING to have a gun in my house to feel safe at home, jeez.

I dealt with an armed home invasion robbery on Christmas night, 1986 in my condo. It very easily could have gone very bad for me. I've never owned a gun but in the few months after that incident, I came very close to buying one. From my own personal experiences, there's been a few times where I would have felt a lot safer armed with something, such as the first night of the '92 LA riots when a friend and I helped another friend move his band gear out of his apt in a pretty shitty part of LA back to my place.